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by _jal 2005 days ago
It isn't just finance startups. With one exception, every startup I've worked for has done something I considered at least sketchy. The difference is most of them didn't have a federal agency with teeth paying attention.

It is, honestly, something I struggle with a bit. I don't like it, but it seems like the state of play is that "a little bit" of cheating is expected, and those who don't are at least operating at a handicap. Exactly how wide that gray area is depends on who is advising you, and sometimes results in shops like early-Uber.

One of my least-favorite aspects of SV.
2 comments
Bayart 2005 days ago
Bryan Cantrill has a talk on YT on ethics in software [1]. And as I remember it the take away is that the way we think about problems isn't very conducive to obeying the law, or being good to people in general. And I've got to say the amount of people I see thinking of regulations, social norms or morals as « cruft » is pretty alarming.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wtvQZijPzg

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bostik 2005 days ago
It's not just startups and/or SV. People generally don't like me bringing this up, but there is a good rule of thumb for everything in life:

The only people who play fair are those who don't know how to cheat well enough.

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